This article was originally published in The Voice.
For over 100 years, scores of unidentified African objects lay hidden in Manchester Museum’s archives.
Now they’ve been brought out into the light for an art event, called African Objects: Psychoactives, Spirituality & Mental Health, led by Togolese British artist Divine Southgate Smith.
Across a six-week series of workshops, Southgate Smith and five people from the Greater Manchester and Leeds African Caribbean communities responded creatively to some of the uncatalogued objects, bringing to the forefront the indigenous communities they once belonged to and the stories that have been lost over the years.
The objects, believed to have been used during spiritual practices, included a small drum, made from wood and animal hide, a wood and cowrie shell shaker, wooden figures and a drinking vessel.
Throughout the workshops, the group took part in a number of activities, including writing poems inspired by African Griot parables and their own lived experience of mental health and/or substance use, and crafting treasure boxes to contain small items they made, including bead amulets imbued with spiritual meanings.
An evening sharing event, held at the Museum, paired display of the objects with the unveiling of striking new works, including poetry and spoken word. Southgate-Smith presented a sculpture inspired by the group’s stories and lived experience, as well as “in response to the silence that surrounds these objects.”
Titled Grammar of the Void, Article One, a naked woman, wearing a necklace of bright blue beads, with yellow beads around her waist, stands at approximately 50cm tall. The sculpture is carved from soft wood and painted in ultra black paint.
A panel discussion explored personal stories and experiences of the project, touching on themes of colonialism and generational trauma.
The project was created by Portraits of Recovery, the UK’s only visual arts charity focused on substance use and recovery, in partnership with Manchester Museum. It was funded by MYRIAD, a charity that spotlights global majority creative health and was part of Portraits of Recovery’s Recoverist Month, which places lived experience at the heart of an annual arts programme, re-writing narratives on substance use and recovery.
According to Portraits of Recovery, those who took part in the project expressed feelings of improved mental health and wellbeing through their project experiences. Many described the sessions as a rare and valued space where their African heritage was celebrated, their voices were heard, and honest, open dialogue was encouraged.
“The group spoke of looking forward to each week, feeling connected to their culture, making new friends, and finding comfort in a creative community that supported both reflection and recovery,” said Dominic Pillai, Curator of Social Engagement, Portraits of Recovery.
Dominic said that the narrative around mental health and substance use in the west is primarily medicalised and does not take into consideration the importance of connecting to one’s own sense of spirituality.
“By inviting members of the community into the Museum, having access to objects that have a direct connection to their cultural identity, this restores a sense of provenance, stories and spirit,” he said.
“These objects exist as silent, static artefacts, stripped of their cultural context and spiritual significance. Even if many of them will never have their full histories recovered, for six weeks they become living objects through people’s voices, and creativity to the cultures they truly belong to.”
Lorainne Ballintine was a member of the group who took part in the project, as well as serving as a wellbeing coordinator for MYRIAD. She said: “Being part of this project has been an incredible journey of reconnection between people, objects, and their histories.
“I’ve seen how exploring the cultural heritage of these artefacts, and creating a safe, creative space has allowed people in recovery from substance use and people with mental health challenges to reflect, heal, and share their own stories. It’s been a powerful reminder of how art and heritage can nurture both identity and recovery.”
Artist Southgate Smith said: “Recovery, in both cultural and personal registers, is not about restoring an imagined wholeness, but the practice of relation: the work of accepting incompleteness, negotiating silence, and insisting on connection in the wake of rupture.
“By opening the speculative space of the archive to the community, we invert the gaze, letting artefacts breathe, not as closed records, but as openings into memory, imagination, and healing.
“The void, rather than emptiness, becomes a site of possibility – a place where we can mourn what was taken, honour what remains, and imagine what could still emerge.”
Ciaron Wilkinson, head of programmes, Manchester Museum said “We were delighted to host African Objects: Psychoactives, Spirituality & Mental Health as part of Portraits of Recovery’s Recoverist Month. This collaboration has brought new perspectives to our Living Cultures collection, showing how museum objects can be reimagined as living tools for reflection, recovery, and transformation.
“At Manchester Museum, we are committed to creating space for dialogue, creativity, and lived experience, and this project shows how collections can inspire meaningful connections between past and present.”